BUSH CRONIES: UNQUALIFIED BUT WELL CONNECTED (DNC Release)

[MaineDem]

BUSH CRONIES: UNQUALIFIED BUT WELL CONNECTED

Washington, DC - On Sunday, the Washington Post chronicled how the Bush
Administration's pattern of rewarding unqualified political cronies with jobs
has hindered the Iraqi reconstruction efforts. These GOP allies were given jobs
based on their political service in campaigns not their experience or expertise
in the respective areas of reconstruction including security, health care and
finance. This is just the latest example of the Bush Administration's continued
practice of putting their party above the needs of the American people. Over
the past five years, the White House has installed Bush cronies in all corners
of the government, regardless of their qualifications, with serious, sometimes
harmful consequences as a result.

Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority

Unqualified Cronies Appointed to Coalition Provisional Authority. Department of
Defense political appointee Jim O'Beirne had been tasked with filling positions
on organization which is to rebuild Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority.
"Applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict
reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush
administration. O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about
domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the
way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs
with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe
v. Wade." Jim O'Beirne is married to conservative commentator Kate O'Beirne.


Jay Hallen, Iraqi Stock Exchange / Coalition Provisional Authority. Jay Hallen,
aged 24, was tapped by Jim O'Beirne to reopen the Iraqi stock exchange, despite
having no background in finance. While in Iraq, "Hallen decided that he didn't
just want to reopen the exchange, he wanted to make it the best, most modern
stock market in the Arab world...Iraqis cringed at Hallen's plan. Their top
priority was reopening the exchange, not setting up computers or enacting a new
securities law. roker Talib Tabatabai Hallen's plan was unrealistic.
When Tabatabai was asked what would have happened if Hallen hadn't been
assigned to reopen the exchange, he smiled. 'We would have opened months
earlier. He had grand ideas, but those ideas did not materialize,' Tabatabai
said of Hallen. 'Those CPA people reminded me of Lawrence of Arabia.'"


James Haveman, Iraqi Health Care System / Coalition Provisional Authority.
James Haveman, a 60-year-old social worker, was tapped to restructure Iraq's
health care system despite the fact that he was largely unknown among
international health experts. Haveman launched an anti-smoking campaign rather
than using the CPA's limited resources to prevent childhood diarrhea or other
fatal diseases. He insisted that Iraqis should "pay a small fee" every time
they saw a doctor, and allocated funds for community health centers rather than
rehabilitating the emergency rooms and operating theaters at Iraqi hospitals,
even though injuries from insurgent attacks were the country's single largest
public health challenge. And he decided to rewrite the country's formulary for
prescription drugs. "Haveman's critics, including more than a dozen people who
worked for him in Baghdad, contend that rewriting the formulary was a
distraction...The new health minister, Aladin Alwan, beseeched the United
Nations for help, 'We didn't need a new formulary. We needed drugs,'
he said. 'But the Americans did not understand that.' 9/17/06]

Havemen Replaced Experienced Public Health Expert. "Haveman replaced Frederick
M. Burkle Jr., a physician with a master's degree in public health and
postgraduate degrees from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and the University of
California at Berkeley. Burkle taught at the Johns Hopkins School of Public
Health, where he specialized in disaster-response issues, and he was a deputy
assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which
sent him to Baghdad immediately after the war...He had worked in Kosovo and
Somalia and in northern Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. A USAID colleague
called him the 'single most talented and experienced post-conflict health
specialist working for the United States government.'" 9/17/06]

Bernard Kerik, Iraqi Police Forces / Coalition Provisional Authority. "In May
2003, a team of law enforcement experts from the Justice Department concluded
that more than 6,600 foreign advisers were needed to help rehabilitate Iraq's
police forces. The White House dispatched just one: Bernie Kerik...The first
months after liberation were a critical period for Iraq's police. Officers
needed to be called back to work and screened for Baath Party connections.
They'd have to learn about due process, how to interrogate without torture, how
to walk the beat. They required new weapons. New chiefs had to be selected.
Tens of thousands more officers would have to be hired to put the genie of
anarchy back in the bottle. Kerik held only two staff meetings while in Iraq,
one when he arrived and the other when he was being shadowed by a New York
Times reporter, according to Gerald Burke, a former Massachusetts State Police
commander who participated in the initial Justice Department assessment
mission. Despite his White House connections, Kerik did not secure funding for
the desperately needed police advisers. With no help on the way, the task of
organizing and training Iraqi officers fell to U.S. military police soldiers,
many of whom had no experience in civilian law enforcement. 'He was the wrong
guy at the wrong time,' Burke said later. 'Bernie didn't have the skills. What
we needed was a chief executive-level person. . . . Bernie came in with a
street-cop mentality.'"

Kerik Withdrew His Nomination As Homeland Security Chief Amid Controversy.
"Bernard Kerik, New York City's former top cop, withdrew his name from
consideration to be President Bush's homeland security secretary, citing the
embarrassing 'nanny problem' that has killed the nominations of other prominent
officials," according to CBS News. During his confirmation process, "lawyers
were aware that Kerik had been questioned in a civil lawsuit involving
questions about an alleged extramarital affair with a corrections employee; the
failure to properly report financial gifts on disclosure forms; and an arrest
warrant issued after he failed to pay condo fees," according to msnbc.com.


Thomas C. Foley, Privatization. "Thomas C. Foley, the CPA official in charge of
privatizing state-owned enterprises. (Foley, a major Republican Party donor,
went to Harvard Business School with President Bush.) Some, like Foley, were
personally recruited by Bush," according to the Washington Post. Foley's boss
in Iraq was Jay Hallen (see above).

FEMA

Michael Brown, Director of FEMA. Before taking over the reins of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency Michael Brown only held one position in emergency
management. The position was for the city Edmond, OK where he interned in
college. Brown also previously held the position of commissioner of the
International Arabian Horse Association. Michael Brown drew immense criticism
for his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 9/8/05]

Joe Allbaugh, Director FEMA; Left FEMA to Engage in War Profiteering. When Bush
was governor of Texas Allbaugh served as his Chief of Staff. Next Allbaugh
managed Bush's Presidential campaign. Allbaugh was rewarded with the top job at
the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA.) A few weeks before the Iraq War
began Allbaugh left his position "to get into the business of securing pricey
Iraqi reconstruction contracts for high-flying clients" at New Bridge
Strategies.

Department of Homeland Security

Julie Myers, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "Julie Myers is
an attorney, former prosecutor and former White House personnel officer who
seems to be a rising star in the administration, she is also married to the
chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, but she has little
expertise in immigration and no management background to suggest she can take
over an agency with 15,000 employees and a $4 billion budget." 1/12/06]

Tracy Henke, Executive Director of the Department of Homeland Security Office
of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness. "Tracy Henke, an
Ashcroft apparatchik from the Justice Department who was best known for trying
to politicize the findings of its Bureau of Justice Statistics. So much so that
the White House installed her in Homeland Security with a recess appointment,
to shield her from protracted Senate scrutiny. Under Henke math, it follows
that St. Louis, in her home state and Mr. Ashcroft's, has seen its
counterterrorism allotment rise by more than 30 percent while that for the
cities actually attacked on 9/11 fell."

Department of State

Ellen Sauerbrey, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and
Immigration. According to a Cox News Service Column "Ellen Sauerbrey, an anti-
abortion activist, has become assistant secretary of state for population,
refugees and immigration, a position ordinarily filled by experienced
professionals. Sauerbrey's scant qualifications include being booed by the
other delegates to a United Nations conference on women for insisting worldwide
abstinence is the way to reduce HIV." The Star Tribune wrote that "Sauerbrey,
the Maryland chairman of Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, has no experience
in dealing with refugees and has been antagonistic to mainstream population
efforts."

Food and Drug Administration

Scott Gottlieb, Food and Drug Administration Deputy Commissioner for Medical
and Scientific Affairs. Thirty-three year old former American Enterprise
Institute fellow and Wall Street tipster Gottlieb "was named deputy
commissioner for medical and scientific affairs, one of three deputies in the
agency's second-ranked post at FDA." Gottlieb drew criticism when he questioned
the stoppage of medical trials of a "drug for multiple sclerosis during which
three people had developed an unusual disorder in which their bodies eliminated
their blood platelets and one died of intracerebral bleeding as a result...
Gottlieb speculated that the complication might have been the result of the
disease and not the drug. 'Just seems like an overreaction to place a clinical
hold' on the trial."

OMB and GSA

Clay Johnson, OMB Deputy Director. Bureau of the Budget deputy director Clay
Johnson, "a Texas friend of the president's since their days at Yale and Mr.
Bush's first White House personnel director." Johnson also handled appointments
for Mr. Bush when he was governor.

David Safavian, Chief Procurement Officer General Services Administration.
Former Lobbying Partner of Grover Norquist "David Safavian didn't have much
hands-on experience in government contracting when the Bush Administration
tapped him in 2003 to be its chief procurement officer. A law-school internship
helping the Pentagon buy helicopters was about the extent of it. Yet as
administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, Safavian, 38, was
placed in charge of the $ 300 billion the government spends each year on
everything from paper clips to nuclear submarines, as well as the $ 62 billion
already earmarked for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. It was his job to
ensure that the government got the most for its money and that competition for
federal contracts--among companies as well as between government workers and
private contractors--was fair. It was his job until he resigned on Sept. 16 and
was subsequently arrested and charged with lying and obstructing a criminal
investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the
Federal Government."

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